Review: TWO PIANOS: WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE? Satisfies Big Time at Carnegie Hall

The show at Carnegie Hall was called Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?  With that second part of the title being a line from "I Got Rhythm" by George & Ira Gershwin, and being that at one of those two pianos was seated someone very closely Gershwin-associated – Michael Feinstein —  you can be sure that some Gershwin would be in the air. It was. At the other piano for their special arrangements was Jean-Yves Thibaudet. The two men provided a generous evening of dazzling music, historical context that felt like relaxed chat more than mini-lectures, personal perspectives, some humor, and overall good spirits.  Things began not with Gershwin, but with Irving Berlin’s number that celebrates the instrument and its players: “I Love a Piano,” which Mr. Feinstein sang and played, as he did on his second album, way back in 1986. (His first LP was all Gershwin  and his third was all Berlin, so for longtime fans it was a cozy reminder; his most recent release was another Gershwin set, done in country style.) Having the French-born Monsieur Thibaudet, who’s also kept George Gershwin’s music in his concert and recording repertoire, enriching this and the classy Feinstein ballad vocals with his own classical music sensibilities doubled the pleasure and joy. 

While other writers’ work was on the set list, they kept coming back to Gershwin, with a lovingly lengthy montage of material near the end that presented dazzlement after dazzlement with supreme showmanship.

Michael Feinstein’s voice radiated with sincerity on the tender songs, some pitched in the higher sweet spot of his range, projecting vulnerability, but eschewing mawkishness and melodrama.  Excessive decoration was resisted in the singing, but there was plenty of exciting back-and-forth ornamentation and color with the piano work, and compelling contrasts in styles and approaches when they took turns soloing within one number - kind of a best-of-both-worlds combination, and all very accessible. 

A second vocalist and a different instrument added more flavor to the satisfying musical banquet.  The billed “special guest” came with guitar - Joshua Henry, accompanying himself on the instrument, became part of the Gershwin scene with “A Foggy Day (in London Town)” andrevisited his role in the recent Broadway revival of  Carousel with a mix of tenderness and passion for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “If I Loved You.” He returned for the concert’s conclusion of the two voices/two pianos on “Love Is Here to Stay,” an apt and persuasive message to float away on, along waves of applause.          

While Michael Feinstein stays in New York City for the last part of 2023 for an engagement at Cafe Carlyle, wed by concerts in Florida, Vegas, and California before returning to Carnegie Hall (in Zankel Hall: February 28, March 27),  Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s concerts in the first couple of months in the new year will have him in Europe concentrating on classical music.  Let’s hope the two pair up again.   

Find great shows to see on the Carnegie Hall website HERE.

Visit Michael Feinstein's website HERE.

THIS is the Jean-Yves Thibaudet website.

Joshua Henry's Instagram page can be accessed HERE.